


The Misadventures of George

by recklessDreamer



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Canon Era, M/M, Merlin and Arthur doing poetry, POV Outsider, Poetry, confused George
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:40:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28361835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/recklessDreamer/pseuds/recklessDreamer
Summary: “Let me guess, you’re in the closet again?”There was a short pause, then a muffled “no, I’m not” came out of the closet. Merlin sighted again, even more deeply. “Come out of there, Arthur.”or, George comes to Camelot and finds himself in more than one, well, confusing situation, most of them involving the prince of Camelot and a certain manservant.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 244





	The Misadventures of George

When George had still been a young boy - round cheeked and with too many freckles - his father used to tell him stories about the knights of Camelot. The stories had been full of adventures and loyalty and bravery, and it was then, that George decided to become a knight himself one day.

Now, several years later but still with the same dream in his heart, it was finally time for him to travel to Camelot. Over the years, he had read countless books about how to behave among royalty, he had practised to bow perfectly in front of a mirror, he knew how to properly address the king and the prince and, most importantly, he had spent every waking hour practising to yield a sword.  
He was finally ready.

It became clear - upon entering the courtyard of Camelot’s castle - that he was not ready. He came here, prepared for battles, knights and adventures, but not for a lanky servant boy with a questionable sense of fashion, who came crashing directly into George.

George staggered back and only a stone pillar next to him saved him from crashing down. But that didn’t stop all the water from a bowl in the boys hands, from spilling all over George’s front.

“Damn, I am so sorry,” the boy exclaimed as he tried to save the remaining water in the bowl, “this always happens to me, Gaius says it’s because I have two left feet, but secretly, I think I am cursed to always spill water. Not that I have anything to do with magic. Not at all. Seriously. Absolutely not.” The boy laughed nervously. “Yeah, well, see you around.”

And with that he dashed off, leaving a confused George behind. Shaking his head, he made his way to the castle kitchen. When he asked the cook where he could find work in the castle, she pointed towards a pretty girl who was just trying to balance four plates of food in her hands at once.

“Hey, I’m Gwen,” she greeted him enthusiastically and George quickly took two of the plates out of her hands, out of fear that it all would crash down any moment.

“Thank you,” she flashed him a smile and then her gaze wandered to the wet patch on his shirt. “I see, you already got to know Merlin.”

Before George could ask who this Merlin was, she already continued, “I heard that you asked cook about a job here. That’s great. One of the other servants just got sick. Why don’t you start right away? It would be great, if you brought this plate to prince Arthur's rooms. Thank you so much.”

She took one of the plates out of George’s hands again, leaving only the one for prince Arthur, apparently.

“What was your name again?”

“Ehm… George…”

“Nice meeting you, George.” And with that, she hurried out.

George looked down at the plate in his hands. Well, it looked like he would meet the prince earlier than expected.

Some wrong turns and corridors later, George was standing in front of prince Arthur's chambers, one hand balancing the food tray, the other one nervously shovelling through his hair.  
He could do this. He would open the door with the most loyal expression he was capable of, bow a tad deeper than it was expected from him, introduce himself in a most humble manner and then ask the prince what he had to do to become a knight. He could do this. He had practised it countless times at home. He knew exactly what to expect.

George knocked three times.

No answer.

After some moments he knocked again, this time fiercer.

Still no answer.

He furrowed his brow. Maybe the prince was not in his chambers?

Cautiously, George opened the door to peek in. The room was empty, apart from a messy bed and various weapons and clothes being scattered around the room.

No prince.

Not quite sure what to do next, George slowly entered the room. He would just put the tray on the table and then he could disappear again.  
But just as he was about to turn around again, something shiny caught his eyes. A sword. The most beautiful sword George had ever seen. Unable to resist, he took some steps closer to the sword that was leaning against the wall next to a closet. This must be the sword from his stories. The sword, with which Arthur had defeated countless enemies. The sword of the greatest hero, the most honorable man, the most regal…

“Pssst, don’t startle.”

George startled terribly. There was a voice. Right behind him. He whipped around, but there was only a closet. George slowly backed away. All the excitement of finally meeting his hero must be too much for him. He started to hear voices. He took in a shaky breath. Everything was fine. There were no voices…

“Psst.” The voice said again and George was ready to flee from the room immediately, weren’t it for the table in his back, stopping him.

The door of the closet slowly cracked open, but only as far to reveal a pair of shining blue eyes.

“Thank god, you are not Merlin,” said the voice that hopefully belonged to the blue eyes.

“I… ehm…” George stuttered. Was this person a thief? An assassin? Should he call for the guards? Or should he take prince Arthur’s sword and fight off the culprit himself?

Before George could act in any way, the closet door opened a bit more, this time revealing dishevelled, blond hair, the rest of a handsome face and a tunic, adorned with the Camelot symbol. George had seen too many paintings of the prince to not recognize him. His heart felt like it was about to burst out of his chest. He was finally standing in front of prince Arthur himself.  
George was about to involve in the same bow he had practised so often, when the door of the chambers banged open and the lanky servant boy from before strolled in, with the confidence of a king.  
Next to George, the closet door hastily closed again.

George, being perfectly aware of all the etiquettes, was just about to lecture the servant boy about the necessity of knocking upon entering a prince’s room, when the boy said loudly, “Arthur, I know that you are in here.”  
He sank to his knees to peek underneath the bed, before standing up again, sighting deeply.  
“Come on, you prat. You can’t hide forever.”

It was only now, that the servant boy spotted George standing there, mouth agape in outrage. Did this boy just call his prince a prat?!

“Hi, there again.” The boy gave him a little awkward wave and then his glance settled on the closet.

“Let me guess, you’re in the closet again?”

There was a short pause, then a muffled “no, I’m not” came out of the closet.

Merlin sighted again, even more deeply. “Come out of there, Arthur.”

“I’m not talking to you right now, Merlin.”

The boy - Merlin - raised his arms in annoyance and turned to George.  
“Fine. Could you - George, right? - tell the clotpole that he should get his royal ass out of the closet so I can get a look at his arm.”

George had no idea what he had done to deserve this. He considered calling for the guards to arrest Merlin, but Merlin’s eyes seemed to pinn him down.

Slowly, George turned to the closet again.  
“Ehm… My royal highness… I am to inform you that you, please, do us the honor of coming out of the closet… maybe?”

There was a short silence again and Merlin stemmed his hands in his waist.

Then, “Tell my idiot of a manservant that he please should just fuck off. I am perfectly fine and I don’t need him, worrying over me all the time. I am completely capable of training with my knights.”

Luckily for George, this time Merlin did not wait until he repeated the message for him. Instead he threw up his hands in exasperation.

“You're not, Arthur. You got hit by a dart just yesterday. Please just let me check that the wound is not infected.” Next to the annoyance, George could hear a tone of concern in Merlin’s voice this time.

The closet sighted and then its doors opened and the prince walked out, a scowl on his face.

“You sound just like your mother, Merlin.”

Merlin flashed him a smile. “Thank you.”

Arthur went to sit on his bed and Merlin shoved down the sleeve of Arthur’s tunic to reveal white bandages wrapped around Arthur’s upper arm, while muttering, “why do I even bother, trying to keep you alive you clotpole, when you make it so damn hard every time?”

George still awkwardly hovered next to the table and he had just decided to simply leave the chambers, when Arthur addressed him.

“Is there anything you need, George?”

George, still terribly shaken from everything he had just witnessed, decided that it was now or never. “My prince, ever since I have been a small child, I dreamt of being a knight. And I know that I am not of noble birth, but I still-”

“All right.”

The prince interrupted him before George could even get through half of his prepared speech about why he was meant to be a knight.  
“Excuse me, but what?”

Arthur just shrugged which caused Merlin to huff out in annoyance.

“I said all right. While my father is still a bit cautious of the idea of commoners becoming knights,” - another huff from Merlin - “shut up, Merlin, am I of the opinion that everybody should have the right to show me what they are capable of. Why don’t you just join us tomorrow morning on the training grounds where I definitely will be training with my knights, no matter what a certain, idiotic servant might say.” The last part was directed at Merlin, who was inspecting a nasty looking wound on Arthur’s arm now.

“This all would not have happened if you had listened to me, and not tried to hunt down that rabbit,” Merlin retorted.

“The rabbit that I had to hunt because you forgot to pack food.”

“I did not pack food because you insisted for me to look at all your stupid swords.”

“Don’t you dare call my swords stupid, Merlin…”

George decided that it was time for him to go. But while he left the arguing voices behind, he couldn’t suppress a smile. Camelot might not completely be what he had imagined, but tomorrow he would finally train with the knights.

\----------------

The next day, George was up before dawn, making sure that he would not be late to his first training with the knights.  
It had snowed that night, not much, but enough to cover the grass outside in a layer of white powder. George had to swallow down his excitement about this late snow. He had always loved snow and it reminded him of days full of fun when he still had been a child. But now he was grown up. Grown up and about to become a knight. And knights did definitely not play in the snow.

George turned around the corner to the training fields, only to be hit by something hard in the back.

“Sorry mate.”

There was a man, half hidden behind one of the training figures, peaking out at George. “I thought you were Merlin.”

The man was tall and broad-shouldered, with long hair and a roguish grin.

“What…” George started, but before he could ask why the man was trying to hit Merlin with snow, the man crouched down, formed some snow into a small ball and then threw it at something behind George. Only now, did George see the other men, there were four of them, all clothed in armour and a red cloak, who immediately answered to the man’s attack by hurtling back their own snowballs. George had to stumble back to not get caught in the crossfire.

One of the men, he had blond hair, started to build a wall out of snow that was not even tall enough to hide his legs.

George could only gape at them. Were those men - playing in the snow like little children - the knights of Camelot?

“You must be the new one, right?” The man with the nice hair addressed him while dodging another snowball.

George nodded slowly.

“Good.” The man said and then he threw a snowball directly in George’s face.

“Welcome to Camelot.”

“Gwaine!” The firm voice came from behind George and he wiped the snow out of his eyes.

The knights abruptly paused the snowball fight and obviously tried to look as innocent as possible. It did not work, especially due to the fact that they were all covered in snow.

Prince Arthur stepped next to George, and his hand landed on George’s back.  
“This is George, he wants to be a knight. George, this rowdy pack are my knights.” He sounded proud but when he glared at the men now, his expression was thunderous. He would scold them now, George realized, for the snowball fight, as it was fit for their commander.

“And now to you,” Arthur said, voice dangerously low, “how dare you start without me.”

And with those words, Arthur tackled Merlin, who, unsurprisingly, had followed Arthur, to the ground. Only seconds later they were rolling in the snow together.

What followed was the fiercest snowball fight, George had ever seen and it only took some nudging from Gwaine and another full load of snow in his face for him, to finally participate as well.

It was some time later when they all sat in the snow, exhausted and with red noses, that George dared to express his thoughts. “I thought the knights would be more… serious.”

It was Merlin who answered (it had turned out that all the knights, for some reason, were fiercely protective of the servant, which George had had to find out the hard way during the snowball fight).  
“Oh, they want you to believe that they are all manly and tough, but in truth they are all big softies.”

“Shut up, Merlin.” Arthur said but when the prince shifted his attention to George, a smile tugged at his lips.

“I can’t have my men being serious all the time. I believe some fun makes them better fighters. I hope you still want to stay.”

George had never nodded so quickly.

\----------------

Some days later after the first training, Arthur came to George who still got incredibly nervous in the prince’s company.

“George,” Arthur said and his name suddenly sounded so meaningful that George tried to straighten up even more.

Arthur furrowed his brows. “Is everything alright with your back? Did you hurt yourself during training.” Well, so much to that. George felt his cheeks heat up.

“No, your highness.” George answered and Arthur nodded.

“Perfect, I need you to accompany me tomorrow on a patrol to the western border.”  
George almost fainted.

“Me?” he managed to choke out. This was one of his biggest dreams. Accompany prince Arthur in official Camelot-red.

“Yes, you want to become a knight, don’t you? And the rest of the knights will already be occupied tomorrow. So it’s just you and me.”

George suddenly found himself incapable of doing anything else, but stare dumbfoldly at Arthur. He, George, would be responsible for protecting the prince. Alone.

Luckily, Arthur didn’t expect him to answer.

“We’ll ride at dawn,” he informed him, before turning away and striding towards a waiting Merlin.

It turned out that _only you and me _, meant Arthur, George and Merlin, who was complaining about how cold it was at this early hour. Why was the servant even joining them?  
“Don’t be such a girl, Merlin,” Arthur teased Merlin as they mounted the horses.  
“I’m just not as thick as you.” Merlin shot back and again, George was shocked about the lack of respect in Merlin’s voice.  
“Are you calling me fat, Merlin?” Arthur asked, but then he passed Merlin his warm cloak.  
Arthur turned to George. “Ready?”  
George tightened his grip around the reins. “Ready, sire.”__

____

____

And so they left the courtyard, Arthur looking completely regal, Merlin huddled in Arthur’s cloak and George, feeling incredibly important.

The ride through the forest was calm, but George did his best to always stay alert. You never knew what was hiding behind the trees and the prince himself seemed more occupied with bantering with Merlin.

The snow from last week had melted completely, and it seemed that spring finally had found its way to Camelot. The sun was burning down at them and soon, even Merlin had to abandon Arthur’s cloak.

By midday, they decided to take a break and eat lunch next to a small stream of water. The sun was high in the sky and George splashed some water into his face, even though it was freezing cold.

Merlin prepared the food and they sat down on the soft grass.  
While eating, George felt himself easing up. He slowly started to understand why the knights all seemed to like Merlin. The servant boy was easy to talk to, kind-hearted and funny. It was nice to laugh together with Merlin and Arthur.

However, it led to him, letting his guard down and so George terribly startled when there was a loud bang, smoke, filling the air and then a woman stood right among the three men.

A sorceress.

George had never really come into contact with magic and therefore never built up an own opinion about magic, but when the king of Camelot claimed it was evil then that probably was the truth.

“Arthur Pendragon,” the sorceress hissed. She was old and wrinkly, with tattoos adorning her arms and neck, disappearing under her black cloak. She looked like George always pictured an old evil witch. “I finally found you to lay my revenge upon you.”

George was on his feet within seconds, sword drawn and ready to attack. He would die here, protecting his kingdom and the prince.

The prince, who, since the arrival of the sorceress, hadn’t even moved a finger. On the contrary, Arthur almost looked… bored. He slowly looked the sorceress up and down and then he turned to Merlin, who seemed to be as unimpressed as Arthur.  
Arthur sighed, which seemed to surprise both George and the sorceress.

“I am here to kill you.” the sorceress said, but now there was a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

“Yes, yes,” Arthur waved his hand dismissively, “why is it that you sorcerers always seem to attack, when I’m having a pleasant time?”

Merlin who, till now, had been lying on his back in the grass, slowly pushed himself up, his nose wrinkled. “Yeah, right? That’s just rude. Don’t you see that we are in the middle of eating,” he gestured towards the picnic, “Couldn’t you just wait until we are done? Or maybe ask when it’s good for us? But no, you always have to come at terrible times. The last sorcerer attacked while we were in the middle of a card game. Can you imagine that? And I was just about to win.” By now, Merlin was on his feet and his voice had gotten louder during his little speech.

The sorceress slowly backed away a little. “I, eh,m...I…” she stuttered but apparently, Merlin was not done yet.  
“And it’s not only your terrible timing that bothers me,” he continued, “it’s all of this” Merlin waved through the smoke that was still hovering in the air, “I mean, smoke? Really? Can’t you think of anything more creative? And ‘I am here to kill you’, please, do you think that’s the first time we hear that? So, why don’t you just piss off and come back later, to a more convenient time?”

“Wait,” Arthur interrupted Merlin, “before you leave, why is it that you want to kill me exactly?”

George almost felt sorry for the sorceress as she tried to find her words, “I… Your father, ehm… he killed so many of us.”

Arthur scowled.

“Ha,” Merlin said, “you owe me two coins.”

“I do not owe you anything.”

“You do. You betted that the next person attacking us would do it because of money. I said the motive is revenge. You have to give me the two coins.”

“I don’t have to do anything. I’m the prince.”

“You’re a clotpole.”

Both George and the women followed their argument silently but it was the old woman, who finally interrupted them. “Excuse me… but we were kind of in the middle of something.”

“So rude.” Merlin muttered under his breath and the sorceress decided that she had enough of talking. She lifted her hand and started chanting in a language that George had never heard before.

He was ready to jump at the woman but Arthur still stayed terribly calm. The prince shot Merlin a glance and Merlin muttered something like, “why do I always have to do all the work?” and then his eyes suddenly turned golden and the woman froze in mid-sentence.

Magic.

Merlin had magic. George wasn’t sure what to do next. Who should he fight first, Merlin or the sorceress? But Arthur did not look surprised at all and that was when George realized that Arthur knew. He knew and didn’t mind.

“Ok, now listen closely,” Merlin addressed the sorceress who looked at the servant in horror. His eyes were still golden and for the first time, George could feel something similar to fear of Merlin.  
“I give you one last warning, understood? Uther killed many of our kind and I am so sorry for that. But Arthur isn’t the king. And I won’t let you punish him for the sins of his father. Arthur will be the greatest king Camelot has ever seen and I will protect him with my life. He will bring magic back to Camelot and if you care about our kind at all, you walk away now and never think of harming him again.”  
Merlin stood directly in front of the sorceress now, staring at her intensely. And then, his eyes turned blue again.

She didn’t move at first, but then she slightly bowed her head. “Emrys. I can feel your power. I trust you and your words. But be aware that not everyone will be convinced as easily as I. And you, young prince, let’s just hope that he is right about you, because otherwise my fury will succumb you.” And with that she disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Merlin wrinkled his nose, “They never learn. Smoke. Again. It will be so hard to get the smell out of the clothes.”  
George had still lifted his sword, not sure if he could lower it now.

“You can close your mouth, George.” Merlin said as he sat down next to Arthur again, popping a strawberry in his mouth.

“But… you.. magic… forbidden…” Apparently, the sorceress had taken George’s ability to talk.

“Please, lower your sword, you’ll hurt yourself.” Arthur said now and finally, George obeyed.

“It is true, my father believes magic to be evil,” Arthur started to explain, “and I was taught the same when I grew up, but Merlin showed me that it is not evil. That it can be quite beautiful, actually.” They shared a soft smile.

“So, you really plan on lifting the ban on magic?”

Arthur nodded. “My father would never agree to that, but we will make it work, one day.”  
There was still one thing George did not understand.

“But why did you let the woman just walk… magic away. She wants to kill you. She could come back.”

It was Merlin who answered. “Most sorcerers that attack Arthur are not plain evil. They are sad, or driven by fury. Most often, a little talking as well as the truth about Arthur’s real opinion about magic helps. She won’t come back.”  
“It also helps that Merlin, or Emrys, as the druids call him, is the most powerful sorcerer alive. Glowing eyes and all that.” Arthur added. Most powerful sorcerer. Why didn’t that surprise George more?

“Merlin, did you eat all of my strawberries? You know how much I love them…”  
And with that, the two of them completely forgot about the matter of magic again and focused on other things - namely, who ate more of the strawberries that Merlin had grown for Arthur with magic.  
George sank down again, shaking his head slightly. He would never understand everything that was going on here.

\----------------

While George spent a lot of time training with the knights, in his spare time he still worked as a servant to earn enough money to get by. Although it sometimes was exhausting, he rather enjoyed doing simple chores and the other servants were really nice too.

So, when one of the palace guards gave him a letter that he was to get to Arthur immediately, he started for Arthur’s room without hesitation, whistling cheerfully.

In one of the corridors he almost ran into Leon, coming from the opposite direction.

“Sir Leon,” George greeted him, “do you, by any chance, know where prince Arthur is?”

Shouldn’t Arthur be in his room he could save the trip there.

“Oh,” Leon said, grinning, “Arthur is in his room, probably doing poetry with Merlin.” The word poetry was accompanied by a suggestive eye wiggle that George did not understand at all.

“Thank you.” he said and continued towards Arthur’s chambers. Poetry. George would never have suspected the prince, of all men, reading poetry. But wasn’t poetry one of the higher arts, only accessible to the sharpest of mind. That seemed fit for a prince like Arthur. And when he thought about it, he could picture Arthur, reading a poem with his loud and majestic voice.

He opened the door to Arthur’s rooms, only to find Arthur and Merlin next to the big desk.

Doing something that was definitely not poetry. Well, George was no expert when it came to poetry, but he at least suspected that it normally did not involve each other's hands underneath the other person's clothes or tongues, being stuck in each other's mouths.

George closed the door again.

He felt his cheeks heating up and he tried to compose himself. In there were Arthur and Merlin, snogging passionately. Prince Arthur and servant Merlin. It would be a scandal, if the people found out. It was a scandal. But, strangely, George found that he didn’t really care. Hell, he wasn’t even that surprised when he thought about it. Yes, he had expected the prince to be different when he came here, but if Merlin was the person who made him happy, who was George to judge them?

He looked down at the letter ‘of utmost importance’ and sighted. The fact that he didn’t care about what Merlin and Arthur did behind closed doors did not mean that he wanted to go in there now. He sighed again. Those two would cost him his last nerves.

He opened the door again.

They had stopped kissing and obviously had tried to get some distance between them.

“George,” Arthur said and his voice sounded a tad higher than normal. Merlin was trying to straighten his black hair, without avail.

“Sire,” George bowed and offered the letter to Arthur, “I’m so sorry to disturb you in your… activities, but this letter is of utmost importance. Also, Leon said that you were practising poetry.” The last bit of his sentence sounded more like a question.

Merlin snorted from where he stood behind the desk and Arthur rolled his eyes. “Poetry? The knights still go with that? That’s all your fault, Merlin.” Still, the prince sounded more amused with Merlin than angry.

“Oh, shut up, Arthur, at least I came up with something that night.”

“Poetry was literally the worst excuse you could think of.”

Arthur took the letter out of George’s hands, but as he stepped back, his eyes grew serious.

“I ask you to not tell my father about this… incident.” There was concern in his eyes. Fear. “I know that one day I have to tell him who holds my heart, but I know that he would never accept Merlin.” And at that moment George understood why Arthur would be the greatest king Camelot ever had. It was because he cared. He cared about Merlin, he cared about his people, he even cared about George.

George bowed his head slightly. “Which incident?”

A relieved smile appeared on Arthur’s face. “You’re a good man, George. Thank you.” Proud warmth filled George.

“However, I would ask you now to leave my rooms, there is a lot more… _poetry _I have to show Merlin.”__

____

____

George wasn’t sure whose face turned redder, his or Merlin’s?

“Of course, Sire, right away.” He stumbled over the carpet in an attempt to leave the room as quick as possible, knocking over a bowl on the cabinet next to him in the process. “I’m sorry sire,” George stuttered while he tried to put the bowl back, “did I tell you my newest joke about brass yet?”

“Get out!” Merlin and Arthur said simultaneously and George finally managed to find the door and escaped through it.

Yes, he thought, Camelot might be full of surprises, but he still loved being here.


End file.
